Allentown's arena project could cost $175 million and include an events center that would push into a second downtown block.

Even as city officials push to acquire properties to build the $100 million-plus arena, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski confirmed Friday that a second phase calls for what would be the largest events center in the Lehigh Valley.

The 200,000 square-foot expo and meeting facility could increase costs to $175 million and would stretch the project into a separate block from the arena site at Seventh and Hamilton streets. The promised payoff: tens of thousands of tourists into the downtown every year.

Comcast-Spectacor officials confirmed Friday that the Philadelphia-based company will operate the arena and the events center.

An Allentown authority that recently tapped a $35 million line of credit to acquire properties and design the arena also is authorized to borrow another $175 million to pay off the first loan and to complete the events center, city documents show.

Pawlowski described the events center — which would be five times the size of the facility being built in Bethlehem by Sands Casino — as "conceptual." It's unclear where it would go.

The first priority, he said, is building the 8,500-seat hockey arena, where the Philadelphia Flyers' top minor league team, the Phantoms, are slated to play as early as the 2013 American Hockey League season.

The Allentown Commercial and Industrial Development Authority (ACIDA) last month tapped into a recently approved line of credit with PNC Bank, allowing the authority to begin acquiring properties in the block where the arena is to be built at Hamilton and Seventh streets, and to pay contractors who have been working on the project for months.

"Now that we have the money, the process can move forward more steadily," Pawlowski said in an interview Friday. "This money is necessary to pay for the architectural drawings, the bid specs, the planning, and really everything that's needed to prepare this site for the arena."

Comcast-Spectacor's Global Spectrum subsidiary operates 104 stadiums and convention centers, including Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center, the Liacouras Center at Temple University and Citizens Bank Park, said chief operating officer John Page. It will handle everything from food service and marketing to ticket sales at the Allentown arena.

"The advantage is all of the systems Comcast Global Spectrum can bring to the facility and to Allentown proper," he said. "We are excited about having an anchor tenant in the Phantoms, which we used to own and sold to the Brooks Group."

Indeed, as part of the Phantoms' sale agreement in 2009, Comcast Global Spectrum was awarded the rights to manage the team's future home, Page said.

ACIDA, the public authority that will finance and own the arena complex, in April and May approved separate resolutions. The first enabled ACIDA to borrow up to $35 million for everything from acquiring and demolishing the 34 properties in the arena block, to design and engineering costs, to building the arena's foundation, Pawlowski said.

The second resolution authorizes borrowing up to $175 million to build the bulk of the arena and events center and pay off the first loan.

The arena, including a parking deck with several hundred spaces, will be on the block bounded by Seventh, Eighth, Hamilton and Linden streets. The events center will be on a nearby block, Pawlowski said, but the city won't embark on the second phase until the arena is nearly complete, he said.

That's because the money to pay for much of both phases is coming from an unprecedented state taxing district that will commit future state and local non-property taxes generated in the district to paying off the debt to build the complex. ACIDA has set the Neighborhood Improvement Zone as a 130-acre district downtown and along the Lehigh riverfront. Pawlowski said the NIZ district will have to be up and generating tax revenue for a full year before phase two can begin.

"We're going to have to get a clearer picture of what kind of new tax dollars the arena will generate before we can determine what can be put into the events center," Pawlowski said. "I consider the events center in the concept stage. Right now, we're focused on the arena."

Experts say that while the arena may be the anchor for the project, the events center might actually be more effective in transforming Allentown's struggling downtown into a bustling tourist attraction. The proposed 200,000 square-foot center would enable the city to host the kind of corporate meetings and conventions — drawing thousands of out-of-town visitors for a single event — that have skipped the Lehigh Valley because it has only smaller meeting facilities.

Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem plans to open its events center next year. At 40,000 square feet it will handle a maximum of 1,500 people for meetings and 2,500 for concerts. The Allentown facility would be five times bigger.

While it's important to know the details of the space, Discover Lehigh Valley Vice President Kim Lilly said an events center of that size would allow the region to compete with larger facilities in Harrisburg and Valley Forge.

To draw large groups, the center probably would need to be coupled with additional hotel rooms, specialists in corporate travel say. Pawlowski said Friday a hotel would have to privately developed.

8,500 seats, 10,000 for concerts; 140-plus events a year; Pawlowski: 'We're looking for a complex that will actually help redefine Allentown.'; Firm has 100 days to find best site, aiming for 2013-14 season.